Nowadays many job applications are sent in digital form as PDF. We use of course LaTeX to create such. Usually you add a cover letter to your CV and credentials. If you sent this as print-out by classic mail you sign this letter (at least in Germany), but what (and how) do you do for an online application?

I would say either:

leave it empty

add your name in the usual font as normal text

add your real signature as scanned image

add your name in a special font so that it look more like a signature (but you can still see that it isn't a real one)

I'm planning to go with the last method and I'm looking for suitable fonts for it which I can use with PDFLaTeX (XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX answers are fine too, but will be taken as non-competitive). I would also be happy to get some style guidelines if I should not got with an other method (with a rationale to avoid subjective opinions).

PS: Please no discussions about digital signatures (PGP, GPG, etc.). That's a complete different topic. (I don't think someone should sent signed applications around as long as it wasn't requested.)
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Martin Scharrer♦Oct 27 '11 at 18:26

12

In terms of "style guidelines", I've gone with option (3) in the past, and used autotrace to provide a vector-based version of the BMP signature. It looks authentic since it duplicates your actual handwriting "exactly".
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WernerOct 27 '11 at 18:28

4

In my mind, the best practice is to scan your real signature, remove the white background and turn it into transparent. This way you can easily include it in the document and even have a nice overlaying effect over your printed name. Even better, use some input device which generates a vector graphics of your signature. Otherwise it is like not having signature at all, merely the name printed.
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DrorOct 27 '11 at 18:29

I think it is just a taste of style. Maybe it is better to go to graphicdesign.SX?
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Leo LiuOct 27 '11 at 18:29

1

In my opinion option 3 is a really bad idea. By signing one's correspondence regularly with an easily copied stamp/image one transfers the burden of proof that it was not oneself who signed a given document. Couldn't find a link atm that explains this more in depth...
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UnapiedraDec 7 '11 at 18:15

I accepted this answer now as the most useful one. Thanks!
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Martin Scharrer♦Nov 3 '11 at 14:11

Isn't it more common to flush the signature block to the right? Doesn't it look better? Lastly, how can you do properly?
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DrorMay 13 '14 at 13:21

1

@Dror: It varies. For pushing the content to the right, I would set it using \null\hfill\begin{tabular}{l@{}} ... \\ ... \end{tabular} (\null may not be required). If you don't want it flush right but starting midway on the page, then use \null\hfill\begin{tabular}{p{.5\linewidth}@{}} ... \\ ... \end{tabular}. The tabular structure will keep the signature together with the printed name around a possible page break (and perhaps the closing as well, if you include that).
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WernerMay 13 '14 at 16:16

In my opinion your number 4 is the worst solution—sorry. In my eyes this looks like “Oh he likes a real signature but isn’t able to scan/include it” or “Why not set the whole document in Comic Sans” and I don’t think this creates a professional appeal.

I’d prefer to set the name only in the normal text font or adding a (vector) graphic of your handwritten and scanned signature.

I am not sure what you mean by "online application", but if you mean a letter you are sending as an attachment to an email, the answer is, it depends.

If for example you are referring to an informal letter you sending to colleagues
inviting them to attend a conference or a presentation then I think it is best
to send it without a formal signature, but having a signature block, which is similar
to that you use to sign your emails.

Martin Scharrer
Chief Engineer
TeX and Co.

If you are sending a letter representing some form of official correspondence,
you should sign it, scan the full signed letter and then email it as an attachment. A
signature represents the authenticity of the letter. You are confirming that the
letter has been send by you. Even better to then hand deliver or post the original.

Now for a letter signed with a font this in my opinion deserves the same fate to
direct marketing letters. They are impersonal and look and feel fake and both
destined to death in a recycle bin.

I meant sending my CV and credentials by email instead as a hard-copy by mail. Most German companies I spoke last and this week are fine with that.
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Martin Scharrer♦Oct 28 '11 at 6:37

4

@MartinScharrer I get a massive amount of applications for posts, via email, which is fine. No one expects to get CVs via post anymore. My suggestion is that you make your elevator pitch in the email. Personally most times, I don't even read the letter only the CV to screen the applicants, but the email always catches my attention. If you drop a letter by hand (always a good idea, you learn a lot about the Company by just hanging at the reception for a few minutes and talking to the receptionist), then include a letter as I suggested above.
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Yiannis LazaridesOct 28 '11 at 7:13

This is what I once did. I signed a piece of white paper then scanned it and by using Inkscape and Potrace, I traced bitmaps making it a vector graphic, then converted it to PDF as an image and finally included it in my LaTeX document.

I go with option 3, but to reduce the impact of unauthorized use, I have a 3 different images. I have one image I use for banking and other things that I am confident about the security of. This image matches my typical signature in real life. I have another I use exclusively for signing forms for students. This one has my full first name, unlike my real life signature, has no middle initial, and my degree after my name. The third is one I use for correspondence (e.g., cover letters) and official university forms. It has my full first name, my middle initial, but no degree. Signatures 2 and 3 are also intentionally written differently from my natural hand writing. The differences in "names" lets me easily identify which one I am looking at.

Hm... I am not a lawyer, but I doubt that your approach makes any difference from a legal point of view. If the signature on a document somehow matches your name and some handwriting of you, you have signed the document.
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DanielApr 11 '12 at 18:30

1

It may or may not make a difference from a legal view. I can assure you that my department and university do not always take the legal vantage. Being able to quickly, and more or less, definitively be able to say whether or not I provided an electronic signature helps to reduce the impact of unauthorized use.
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StrongBadApr 11 '12 at 19:23

But you can't say, on seeing version 2 or 3, 'I did not provide an electronic signature' because that is one of your electronic signatures, right? So how exactly does this help? (I'm sure it does or you wouldn't do it. I just don't quite understand.)
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cfrNov 14 '14 at 15:25